WhatsApp will soon show ads in Status section, confirms company

Daniels on Wednesday announced that Facebook-owned WhatsApp will monetise the service by putting ads inside the Status section

HIGHLIGHTS

WhatsApp will put ads inside Status

Brian Acton recently revealed that Facebook had plans to put ads inside WhatsApp even before the acquisition

David Fisher, Facebook’s vice president of business and marketing partnerships, in August this year had announced that WhatsApp was planning to bring ads to the platform but it was unclear of how or where to put them. WhatsApp VP Chris Daniels has now made the plan clear. WhatsApp will bring ads under the Status section of the app.

Daniels on Wednesday announced that Facebook-owned WhatsApp will monetise the service by putting ads inside the Status section. “We are going to be putting ads in ‘Status’. That is going to be primary monetization mode for the company as well as an opportunity for businesses to reach people on WhatsApp,” announced Chris Daniels.

Facebook’s plan to monetise WhatsApp have long been in news. In fact, WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton who made his exit from the company last year recently revealed that Facebook had plans to put ads inside WhatsApp even before its acquisition.

The ads will be in addition to the WhatsApp Business API which was launched by the company in August. WhatsApp charges these businesses for using the platform to reach out their customers.

“Currently, we’re approaching monetisation in two ways. In August, we launched the WhatsApp Business API, which enables large companies like MakeMyTrip to send information like tickets to users on WhatsApp. Businesses pay to send those messages,” Daniels told Economic Times paper.

“In the future, we’ll place ads in WhatsApp Status, which is our Stories feature. We think this is an appropriate place for ads within WhatsApp. WhatsApp will remain free for people to use and we remain fully committed to end-to-end encryption. With our full set of features in place for both people and businesses, we believe WhatsApp will continue to contribute to economic growth here in India.”

To recall, ‘Status’ is the tab you see in your WhatsApp window right between the ‘Chats’ and ‘Calls’ tabs. Similar to Snapchat Stories, photos, texts or video posted inside the Status section automatically disappear after 24 hours. The feature has over 450 million users, far more than the number of Snapchat Stories user.

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